The Science of Happiness

50 students from the California State University, Northridge were used for the research study.All participants are a undergrads in the Psychology program at Cal State Northridge and are 18 years of age or older who are looking to earn credit for their Psy 150 class and signed up voluntarily through SOMA, an online human participant pool which allows students to sign up for studies.

Materials

The materials used in this study included a debriefing form as well as a consent form which briefly explains the study’s purpose and an explanation of procedures used in the study.

The consent form also explained to the participants that they may withdraw from the study at anytime. No special equipment or machines were used during this study. However, other materials used in this study include the desks and chairs to hold 25 students at a time plus the researchers. The questionnaire which was handed out to the participants as well as pens to fill out the questionnaire were part of the materials that were used in this research study.

Procedures

It took two sessions to complete this study. One consisted of 25 participants who are physically active with minimal gaming and the second session consisted of another 25 participants who are gamers and minimally physically active totalling to 50 participants. The sessions took 10 minutes each . As the participants walked into the room, they were asked to sign in on a sheet with the identification numbers that were provided to them by SOMA. Sign in was used to make sure that all participants who participated in the study were given credit for participating. After signing in, they were asked to take a seat. Once all the participants were in the room, they were given the consent form to read as well as the Bill of Rights for them to sign. The researchers read the consent form to the participants as they read along.This provided extra reassurance that the participants knew of any risks. Once the consent forms were read, the questionnaires and pens were handed to each of the participants. The questionnaire that was filled out included five demographic questions. The questionnaire also had a seperate section in which the participants were asked to rate items in a list on a scale from one to six, one being “not at all true” and six being “very true”. These items were related to happiness and the participant had to rate these items on the list based on how relatable these statements were for themselves. Participants were given 8 minutes to answer the questionnaire and once they were finished with the questionnaire, they were asked to return the questionnaires and after they received a debriefing which took another minute thus, staying within the 10 minute time frame.

Designs

This research study was designed to measure the levels of happiness of undergraduate students who are physically active as well as undergraduate students who are gamers. The two groups, physically active people and gamers, were split into two different groups consisting of 25 each and studied in separate occasions. Each group filled out a questionnaire which consisted of the same items and once they were submitted, they were scored on a happiness scale. Depending on their answers we evaluated their happiness level. For example, if a person indicates a feeling of a 6 on a “positive” feeling, on the majority of the items, we can conclude that this individual has a high level of happiness. In this study, the variables were amount of physical activity, gaming, and levels of happiness. The information needed to study the happiness levels in each variable can be found in the questionnaire.

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